.........Verniece Zorn, a 70-year-old retired printing company worker, said she made a promise to herself years ago that if Gingrich ever ran for president, she would support him. She liked the newsletters he had sent her as a Georgia congressman. Zorn, who identifies herself as an evangelical Christian, said she has looked beyond Gingrichs multiple marriages and acknowledged infidelities, and she believes he is the most capable leader in the race.

None of us are perfect. We all have our little hang-ups, said Zorn, of Stockbridge. Hes my first choice. I believe he knows more than all of them put together.

As for issues the voters care about, the economy trumps everything else, including tax reform, health care, the national debt and social issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion. Thats true virtually no matter how you slice the electorate, the poll found. Some groups  nonevangelicals, those without a college degree  are especially focused on economic issues, but no group rates other concerns above the economy.

The poll, conducted for the AJC and the Georgia Newspaper Partnership, surveyed 625 likely GOP primary voters Monday through Wednesday. Gingrich was the choice of 43 percent of respondents, followed by Mitt Romney with 29 percent, Rick Santorum with 12 percent and Ron Paul with 6 percent.

Georgians will go to the polls on March 6, Super Tuesday. With 76 GOP delegates, Georgia is the biggest prize among the 10 states voting that day....

Romney polled better than Gingrich among voters who said they were not evangelical and those who described themselves as moderate or liberal, but those groups were in the minority.....

"South Carolina turned out to be quite a shock for the Republican Party as Newt Gingrich sailed to an easy victory over Mitt Romney. Gingrich, an historian, knows full well the significance of this victory: no Republican has ever won the nomination without the South Carolina primary under their belt.

However, even more shocked and disturbed was the third estate and ABC News.

The media was sure that the airing of Gingrichs former wife complaining about his desire of an open marriage would destroy Newt at the SC primary. In fact, not only did Newt win, one of his widest margins was in the 18-44 womens vote, much to the chagrin of ABC.

During this election, the media has consistently played the family and wife card on Republican candidates in order to besmirch and monkey with the election process of the Republican primaries (on a side note, a good argument could be made against ABC for an election tampering case). The played the religion and faux pas mistakes cards on Bachmann, Pawlenty and Perry and went after Cain the most vociferously with unsubstantiated claims of infidelity and basically boorish character flaws.

Unfortunately, up until Gingrich they all fell into the trap of denials and explanations. By doing so, previous candidates validated the medias claims whether they were true or not, or made the candidates look bad. They put people on the defense and thus gave credibility to the stories, and power to the attacks.

Instead, Newt responded not as a politician would, with denials and explanations, but as an ordinary American wouldhe called the media out on their ruthless and despicable acts of yellow journalism. Instead of saying Yes, that was a mistake in my life, and Im sorry, he simply said Yah I did it, so what? You are a jerk for bringing that up now.

By responding in this way, he struck not only a major blow against the networks, but against political correctness itself and struck a chord with almost every American who detested the rampant spread of silly and worthless adjustments to popular culture that do nothing but weaken a society. He made neither apologies nor disavowals, he simply defined himself as who is today and burned the media at the stake for their accusations.

Political correctness is the elephant in the room, the subjects we dare not brooch. We have made free speech and acts of normal human nature taboo. We have avoided subjects and hidden our flaws in order to be more accepted in society"

.....[Mason-Dixon managing director Brad ] “Coker said if he were advising Romney he would urge the front-runner for the nomination to focus elsewhere and let Gingrich have Georgia.

If Romney bypassed Georgia and put his emphasis on other places, nobody would think much of it if Newt won Georgia, Coker said. I dont think Romney wants to carpet-bomb Newt in Georgia because hes going to need Georgia in the fall. He pulled everything he had out of the magazine to win Florida. I dont think hes going to do the same thing to win Georgia.

...Audrey Haynes, a political scientist at the University of Georgia, said the Mason-Dixon poll shows real danger for Romney. His high negatives  23 percent of respondents had an unfavorable opinion of him, second only to Pauls 42 percent  speak to the conservative nature of the Georgia electorate, she said.

Romney needs to mobilize moderate voters in Georgia and hope for a strong crossover vote from Democrats, she said.”

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